Apple tops analyst firm MBLM’s latest 2020 brand intimacy study, which ranks the companies that made the most emotional connections with customers during the year of COVID-19.

According to MBLM, Apple achieved a “Quotient score” of 74.0 out of 100. Some 40% of users said they could not live without the brand. Meanwhile, 21% said they would be willing to pay 20% more for the brand’s products and services (the so-called Apple Tax in action).

Apple has expanded its Health Records initiative to Canada and the United Kingdom. This enables healthcare institutions in the countries to offer users the ability to safely and securely check their medical records using the iPhone’s Health app.

The service has been available in the United States since 2018. To date, some 500 U.S. institutions support Health Records on iPhone. However, this is the first time Apple has expanded outside the U.S.

Security is key, whether online or IRL. Thanks to smartlocks, though, secure doors don’t need keys. Install one on your door, and you can enter and exit more securely, using a simple code or even your thumbprint. That’s just what these two smart locks bring to any home or office.

Apple will introduce a HomePod mini in 2020, but don’t get your hopes up about a sequel to the original HomePod smart speaker, claims a reliable Apple leaker.

L0vetodream made the claim Tuesday on Twitter after Apple issued invites to its October 13 “Hi, Speed” event. Apple likely will unveil its final new hardware products of the year at that time.

Pick up Apple’s newest ultraportable and enjoy up to $99.01 off for a limited time only on Amazon. The 2020 MacBook Air, complete with a brilliant new Magic Keyboard, is now available for as little as $949.99.

London-based MISHO jewelry designer Suhani Parekh has created earrings that are designed to attach to AirPods to stop them falling out of wearers’ ears.

“The earrings fit on as regular earrings do, with a back and post,” Parekh told Cult of Mac. “They’ve been designed so you can slip your AirPods in and out as you use them through the day without the need to take the earrings off.”

The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee revealed its recommendations for dealing with Big Tech Monday in a 449-page report, following 16 months of investigation.

While the report has recommendations for Amazon, Facebook and Google parent company Alphabet, it also focuses on Apple — and what needs to change to make Cupertino antitrust-compliant.

Most people’s drawing skills peaked in first grade. Which means the diagrams we include in handwritten notes often look like they were drawn by a moderately skilled raccoon. Fortunately, iPadOS 14 offers shape recognition, turning our scrawls into the neat geometric shapes we envisioned.

Using this feature in Apple Notes or Email is easy. But there’s a trick to it. Here’s how to use shape recognition with an iPad and any stylus.

The heart of Merényi Márk’s setup is a 2018 Mac mini. Even though it’s a base-line model, this little Mac that could executes every task he throws at it.

Márk recently ditched his LG UlraWide Monitor and replaced it with an LG 32UK550-B 32-inch 4K VA Monitor, which is made for gaming. He prefers the standard 16:9 aspect ratio of his new monitor when playing on his Xbox. In terms of fewer viewing angles that come with a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel, he sits right in front of it, so it’s not an issue. And he “expected far worse viewing angles and colors from [a VA panel],” so it came as a “pleasant surprise” to him that it’s so good.

The careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington will be the focus of an upcoming docuseries for Apple TV+. The Supermodels will explore how these four disrupted the ’90s fashion scene.

The invite to an Apple October product event might have an upcoming device hidden in plain sight. Part of the graphic included with the invite apparently bears a strong resemblance to AirTags, the item-location tags that are supposedly on the docket for the October 13 event.

Keep your MacBook safe and snug while you travel with Twelve South’s awesome new SuitCase. It’s quilted and enveloped in a water-resistant twill, and features a hard shell for maximum protection.

The case also opens right up so that you can comfortably use your MacBook inside it without having to pull it out.

Don’t disrupt your desk with a dozen dangling dongles every time you need to connect peripherals to your MacBook. Anker’s excellent 7-in-2 USB-C hub is a much cleaner, more elegant solution that’s now $15 cheaper.

Enjoy this limited-time discount before it disappears.

Hidden in Tuesday’s invite to the October Apple event is a hint that the company is about to make a big push into augmented reality.

The graphic for the event invite is the Apple logo surrounded by bubbles. iPhone and iPad users can transfer that design to the real 3D world, and put it in motion.

Apple just invited the world to an event on October 13. No agenda was announced, but there’s little doubt the star will be the iPhone 12, the first iOS device with 5G wireless networking. Apple hinted at the coming upgrade with the title of the event: “Hi, Speed.”

But a handful of other products might also be on the docket, including the first MacBook built around Apple Silicon rather than an Intel processor.

Turn-based strategy game Total War Saga: Troy is coming to Mac, two months after it debuted on Windows.

The game, which received positive reviews upon its August release for PCs, is set during the Trojan War and the Aegean civilization. Players must engage in battles, harvest resources like wood and bronze, and maintain their approval from the Greek gods. This is the second game in the Total War Saga subseries, following 2018’s Thrones of Britannia.

The U.S. House of Representatives antitrust report on Big Tech reportedly includes a “thinly veiled call to break up” the tech giants, according to a report by Reuters.

The House antitrust subcommittee could publish its report on Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet this week. However, while it’s not been published yet, it’s already causing controversy.

These days, we’ll take all the joy we can get. And what better way to spark joy than to start a karaoke party? Singing is good for the soul, and this portable karaoke setup makes it easy to belt out your favorite tunes anytime and anywhere.

Security researcher Niels Hofmans of ironPeak has confirmed a T2 chip security flaw. These chips have been found in all new Macs made since 2018.

At its worst, the vulnerability — which is reportedly “unpatchable” — could allow an attacker to interfere with Macs in “classic evil maid” attacks involving an unintended computer. This might open the door for new ways for law enforcement to access suspects’ Macs to retrieve information, for example.

TikTok pulled in more than $130.5 million in worldwide user spending in September, making it the top-grossing non-gaming app in the App Store — despite the various existential threats it faces.

In a new report by app analytics firm Sensor Tower, the company notes that user spending on TikTok in September was 7.9 times greater than this time last year. That $130m sum covers both iOS and Google Play revenue.

Apple’s VP of Platform Architecture Tim Millet says the company’s A14 chip, which debuted last month in the fourth-generation iPad Air, will take machine learning to the next level.

“It takes my breath away when I see what people can do with the A14 Bionic chip,” Millet told German magazine Stern.

Manufactured using a 5nm process, the mobile chip boasts an astonishing 11.8 billion transistors, up significantly from the 8.5 billion of the A13. It is expected to power this year’s upcoming iPhones.

Ahead of the expected launch of its over-the-ear headphones, dubbed AirPods Studio, and a possible new HomePod speaker, Apple has stopped selling headphones and wireless smart speakers made by rival firms such as Sonos, Bose and Logitech.

The rival manufacturers previously had their third-party products available on Apple’s Online Store. However, as Bloomberg reported Monday, they have now vanished. Employees at brick-and-mortar Apple Stores have also been removing the products from shelves.

With the public release of macOS Big Sur right around the corner, it’s a good time to think about leaving the beta program — especially if you’ve been running the new release on your primary machine.

Dropping out ensures you get stable releases and quick fixes as soon as they’re available, and prevents potentially buggy future betas from being installed on your device. We’ll walk you through the process.

The next Bruce Springsteen album Letter To You will debut on the same day as an Apple TV+ documentary offering a behind-the-scenes look at the live studio album’s creation.

In addition, the Letter To You documentary will include full performances from the E Street Band playing songs from the new release.

After months on hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and a significant rewrite — filming for season two of The Morning Show reportedly restarts later in October. And Steve Carell is allegedly rejoining the cast.